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Similarities to the Clayton Valley and successful exploration so far have prompted two potential JV partners to plan a busy autumn at their Kibby Basin lithium project. Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA and MGX Minerals CSE:XMG now plan up to 1,465 metres over four holes in an area where geophysics found a strong magnetotelluric conductor. Added to the agenda are downhole geophysics to search for possible aquifers.

Drilling begins soon on a program that follows last season’s encouraging lithium results at Kibby Basin in Nevada.

Earlier this month the companies delivered another 59 core samples from hole KB-3 for assays. In September Belmont and MGX announced results from the same hole that twice reached a high of 580 ppm lithium.

This season’s downhole geophysics will take over where previous water samples met unexpected technical complications. Lithium concentrations in water samples failed to show anomalous results despite the core sample assays. A new approach including downhole geophysics will “improve the chances to accurately locate layers of high conductivity and porosity and allow high-quality, representative samples to be taken where lithium concentrations are potentially higher,” the companies stated.

Having already earned 25% of the project, MGX has until year-end to increase its stake to 50%. The companies hope to form a 50/50 JV that would use rapid lithium extraction technology developed by MGX. The method won MGX the Base and Specialty Metals Industry Leadership Award at the 2018 S&P Global Platts Global Metals Awards in London last May.

Located about 50 kilometres north of Clayton Valley, the 2,056-hectare Kibby Basin project shares a number of similarities with the region hosting North America’s only lithium-producing operation, including a “closed structural basin, a large conductor at depth, lithium anomalies at surface and depth, evidence of a geothermal system and potential aquifers in porous ash and gravel zones,” the companies stated.

In northern Saskatchewan Belmont and International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT share a 50/50 stake in the Crackingstone and Orbit Lake uranium properties.